The Gender Binary Harms Us All: Disrupting Toxic Masculinity & Gender Based Norms with System-involved Youth

Mack Boyle

Training Description

This training will support participants in exploring the ways that we have collectively been shaped by the gender binary and gender norms. Participants will reflect on their own socialization into the gender binary and how it has shaped them today. Through exploring the work of Alok Vaid-Menon and Sonya Renee Taylor, participants will explore the ways that our bodies and minds have been conditioned into the gender binary as a product of white supremacy. Through videos, discussion, and journal reflection, participants will explore the ways this shows up in our lives and our efforts to serve and/or support youth who are system involved or at high risk of system involvement. Participants will also generate examples of toxic masculinity and gender norms showing up within their efforts to support system-involved youth and families, and practice strategies of interrupting it.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

● Identify 1-2 ways their own socialization into the gender binary impacts them & their efforts to serve and/or support youth who are system involved or at high risk of system involvement.

● Specify 1-2 ways that the gender binary, gender norms, gender policing, and/or toxic masculinity impacts folks of various gender-based identities.

● Identify 1-2 ways that gender-based harm shows up within their efforts to support system involved youth and identify 3-4 strategies to interrupt it.

Agenda

10:00AM-10:15AM  WELCOME

● Training Agenda

● Collective Agreements

● Check-In Question: What were some gendered rules, norms, or sayings in your household growing up?

10:15AM-10:30AM  SHARED DEFINITIONS

● Participants will explore and learn the various definitions and identities related to gender and gender identity.

10:30AM-10:45AM  SHARED DEFINITIONS CONT’D

● Participants will explore and learn the various definitions and identities related to gender and gender identity.

10:45AM-11:00AM  SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION & GENDER BINARY

● Explore the systems of oppression that uphold the gender binary

● Explore the ways that the gender binary is rooted in racism and colonization

● Participants will engage in a reflection to answer: How does the gender binary and its “rules” you’ve been taught, influence your gender expression and how you exist in your body?

11:00AM-11:15AM  HOW THE GENDER BINARY HARMS US ALL

● Participants will explore how the gender binary directly harms and impacts trans and non-binary people.

● Participants will explore how the gender binary limits everyone's expression and in turn harms everyone to some degree.

11:00AM-11:15AM  BREAK (CE Hours will not be offered for this time)

11:15-11:30AM   “THE MAN BOX”

● Participants will explore the ideas that society tells us make up masculinity and what it means to be a man by watching a video clip from “The Feminist on Cellblock Y”

● Define Toxic Masculinity and explore its impact on men

11:30AM-11:45AM  TOXIC MASCULINITY

● Participants will explore the impact toxic masculinity has on men such as: loneliness, isolation, depression, shame, etc.

● Participants will reflect on how they see narrow ideas of masculinity impacting the youth they serve and/or support who are system involved or at high risk of system involvement.

● Participants will strategize ways to interrupt those narrow ideas of masculinity which impact the youth they serve and/or support who are system involved.

11:45AM-12:00PM  ALOK VAID-MENON ON HEALING FROM GENDER EXPECTATIONS

● Participants will watch a video clip by alok vaid-menon who will discuss the ways that gender expectations have limited our expression & creativity & explores what it would take to heal from this

● Participants will share in trios about what it would take for us and the system involved youth we serve to heal from the many expectations that have been placed on us due to the gender we were assigned at birth.

12:00PM-12:15PM  CREATING GENDER AFFIRMING SPACES AND DISRUPTING GENDER NORMS

● Participants will explore strategies for Creating Gender Expansive & Affirming Spaces Institutionally.

● Participants will reflect on how their program and agency are already using those strategies, and also reflect on where there is room for growth.

● Participants will add their own ideas for strategies.

12:15PM-12:30PM  CREATING GENDER AFFIRMING SPACES CONT’D

● Participants will explore strategies for Creating Gender Expansive & Affirming Spaces Individually.

● Participants will reflect on how they are already using those strategies, and also reflect on where there is room for growth.

● Participants will add their own ideas for strategies.

12:30-12:45PM  GENDER BINARY IMAGINE ACTIVITY

● Participants will identify where they see gender norms and toxic masculinity showing up in their work with system involved youth, and surface the related images that come to mind.

● Participants will identify where they see gender expansivity showing up in their work with system involved youth, and surface the images that come to mind with that

● Participants will collectively debrief this activity

12:45PM-1:00PM  CLOSING

● Participants will explore organizations and resources for gender liberation.

● Participants will have closing reflection and share out answering: What do you hope to practice with yourself to expand your thinking around gender? What do you hope to practice with the system involved youth you work with to interrupt gender norms and create gender expansive spaces?

Meet Our Trainer

Mack is a white queer fat organizer, mental health worker, and facilitator working on capacity building related to racial justice, abolition, and body liberation. Their focus is to support white folks in transforming the ways we engage with race, building communities of trust and care, and developing somatic awareness to act more in alignment with values of social justice. Through their time working in mental health nonprofits, they have supported the implementation of equity centered policies, practices, discussion spaces, and working groups to support organizations in centering equity and justice. Based in Oakland, CA, on unceded Ohlone land, Mack was a mental health rehabilitation specialist within Oakland Unified School District. Through this lens they have developed and led training sessions for teachers, parents, and school communities on fostering community with attention to power dynamics, intersectionality, and creating affirming spaces for queer and trans youth. They facilitate and co-develop curriculum for white affinity spaces for folks looking to deepen and transform their racial analysis. They are currently working with higher education institutions such as Stanford, and UC Santa cruz, as well as non profits, public schools, and mental health programs, to support individuals and leaders in building tools and strategies to navigate conflict, engage in courageous conversations, and become agents for change within their specific context.

This course meets the qualifications for (2.75) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.